U.S. Catholics divided on where church should be headed

While U.S. Catholics are about evenly divided on where the church should be headed, a majority
say the next pope should allow priests to marry.

According to the Feb. 13-18 Pew Research Center
survey, 58 percent of Catholics polled said this would be a good decision,
while 35 percent said it would be bad.

Catholics also largely said it would be good (60 percent) if the next pope comes from the
developing word.

The poll came in the days after Pope Benedict XVI announced he'll be
stepping down on Feb. 28, a move that means there will likely be a new pope by Easter.

Overall, respondents were about evenly divided on whether the new pope should maintain
traditional positions (51 percent) or move in new directions (46 percent).

Of those who said the church should move in new direction, 19 percent said it should become more
modern, 15 percent said it should work more aggressively to deal with sex abuse and 14 percent each
said it should allow priests to marry and become more accepting in general.

The questions were part of a poll of about 1,500 adults that included about 300 Catholics. The
Catholic-specific questions have a margin of error of plus or minus 6.5 percentage
points.